Jose Montiel

Jose Montiel, Founder of Parkbliss

Who are you?

My name is Jose Montiel, Founder of Parkbliss, Inc

Can you tell us the story of your business from idea to where you are now?

A few months ago, members of my family came into town to visit, it was during high season and I decided to show them around downtown, however, after spending more than one hour driving around, trying to find parking, we desisted and returned home very disappointed. It was then when it hit me, there should be a platform that allows me to find parking when I need it but also that could allow the number of parking spaces to be expanded, and soon the concept for Parkbliss was born.

I began developing the platform during my spare time, working every night until almost sunrise, after a few weeks I had a very rudimentary prototype of the app to show people around and they liked it and that’s when I finally decided that I needed to pursue Parkbliss, it couldn’t be just another side project. In a few months I finally had fully operational iOS and Android apps for Parkbliss ready for release.

Parkbliss has become a work of pure passion to me, and so I am constantly working to bring to our users new features that help Parkbliss achieve its purpose of finally solving the otherwise tedious process of finding parking.

Here’s to never circling the block again!

What has been your biggest failure or struggle?

One of my biggest struggles was to make the startup jump. Starting your own endeavor is always frightening, although very thrilling and exciting. As a founder, you must keep your eyes on your goal, whether that is to you helping others, recognition or simply money; otherwise, you’d never take the leap forward.

And what has been your biggest achievement or success?

I believe my biggest achievement is to be able to do what I love. I studied Chemical Engineering in college, when my thesis project allowed me, I learned programming at nights and released my first application and my first dive into Entrepreneurship, Abasteceme, which was very well received and highly covered by the media at the time. Since then, I have been able to join multiple and diverse projects as a Software Engineer, meeting awesome and incredibly smart people.

What’s your must read business book?

Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown

Who’s your most inspirational CEO or founder?

Mark Zuckerberg. The passion and humanity he puts into what he does, trying to expand our ability to communicate with each other while bringing out the best of us is truly inspiring. I am always looking forward to what he’s coming with next.

And can you tell us something weird or interesting about yourself?

I was part of Venezuela’s System of Youth Orchestras as a Violinist for more than 13 years. I love playing the Violin.